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THE Page MILITANT December 15, 1928.
December 15, 1928.
THE MILITANT Page THE DRAFT PROGRAM OF THE COMINTERN AUCRITICISM OF By TROTSKY in market build speed of between can be based only on the highest prodiuserica force pendence on the world markety Len in spokei directe Revolution In The refusal to its not give rise to to any toiling attack upon each in October TECHNICALLY FUNDAMENTALS CONTINUED FROM LAST ISSUE WHERE IS THE SOCIAL DEMOCRATIC icians as a whole. They too abstract from the tem of self sufficing socialist economics without market by the correlation of prices, to the same the rivalry of two systems leads us to the arena DEVIATION Here is what Bucharin wrote on the subject in world entity and from the imperialist epoch. They any entrances or exits to it. As to the external extent it is not so much military intervention as of world economy and world politics, that is, to 1017: What have said is more than sufficient to start out from the fiction of isolated development.
environment, that is, the rest of the world, Bucha. the intervention of cheaper capitalist commodities the arena of action and decision of the revolution Revolutions are the locomotives of history. The characterize Bucharin theoretical position of They apply to the national phase of the world rin as well as Stalin, think of them only from the that constitute the greatest danger to Soviet econ ary International which includes also the Soviet a vague economic criterion. But their iceeplaceable engineer of that locomotive can even in yesterday and today. To characterize his political revolution is different. The leftism of the in his article about the necessity to abstract merely a question of an isolated economic victory Soviet Republic, which secures from time to time proletariat cannot stay within the limits of the proper the statements written by the those from the international factor, he has in mind not over one own bourgeoisie: the world power and towards Socialism. However, this mis which are absolutely analogous with those which the Social Democratic evaluation inside out. How market the support of the International. Before, however, The Socialist revolution which is meant for the taking up this question we will try to reveal its not Bucharin does sion which is being put on the order of the day he himself (IN THIS CASE in full agreement ever, the position of the theoreticians of the have to abstract from the world victory of the proletariat of each country over its main contradiction, basing ourselves on the draft because he simply forgets about it in his structure. In harmony with this scheme Bucharin own bourgeoisie. Lenin, 1919, Vol. 16, page 388. program.
mountable wall. Take note. an insurmountable on their basis the theory of our Social Democratic would remodel it, is equally bad. One must take It is a question of competition and of a life and THE ANTAGONISM BETWEEN THE by the battering ram of the INTERNATIONAL concerning the relations between the October Rev. position and Bauer prognosis as the exercises of wall. T. which can be broken through only Deviation. It appears that in the central question Lenin position which simply REMOVES Bauer call championed at the Fourteenth Congress the idea death struggle between two social systems one of that it we will not be interfered with by interven which only commenced to build on backward proPRODUCTIVE FORCES AND THE NA.
WORKERS RÉVOLUTION. Bucharin, Class olution and the international revolution, the oppo. an elementary class.
tion we will up socialism although with the ductive forces and the other which still rests on TIONAL BOUNDARIES AS THE CAUSE Struggle and Revolution in Russia, page 34, Rus sition thinks. the same That is how matters stand with the Social tortoise. uninterrupted struggle sian edition)
OF THE REACTIONARY UTOPIAN Not we but the authors FOREX the ogle productive forces of immeasurably greater strength, that two systems, the fact One could not express himself more clearly, not admit the possibility of Socialist construction Democratic deviation.
THEORY OF SOCIALISM IN ONE the admission of our de COUNTRY.
Sucta were the views held by Bucharin in 1912, in Russia. One would think that printing has of the draft should consider themselves related to Bauer.
two years after Lenin alleged change in 1915. been discovered only in 1924 and that everything With this isse The Mili in a word, Marxian dynamics in displacing one ly of The theory of socialism in one country is con to the world mar Perhaps the October Revolution taught Bucharin that happened before that has been forgotten. It tant prints th, third in social form by another on the basis of the growing ket) pessimism, reveals thereby his own provin fürmed as we have seen by means of several sophist is all trusted to short memory. THE DEPENDENCE OF THE differently? We shall see.
forces all this has been blotted out. cial ON WORLD ECONOMY In 1919, Bucharin wrote on the subject of the However, on the question of the nature of the Proletarian Dictatorship in Russia and the World October Revolution, the Comintern settled its ac The precursor of the present prophets of the nist Internatio: Cri die world market and the pititful character of his hand and by a scholastic interpretation of the law of Fundamentals placed by a skinflint reactionary Utopia of enciruneven development on the other. By, in the theoretical organ of the Comin counts with Otto Bauer and other philistines of nadimal. Socialisti biociety was niet hen tihiana Herr by Tidsky, This cled socialism, built on a low technique developing countrybred optimism, hoping to hide from world Vollmar Describing in his article entitled An document, a màsterpiece of economy behind a bush and to get along somehow a correct interpretation of the historical law as tern, saying Under existing WORLD economy and the con my speech on the question of the New Fon: Isolated Socialist State the prospect of indepen. Marxist Leninist literature was with the speed of a tortoise within national with his own means.
boundaries, connected with the external world dent socialist construction in Germany, the pro sky to the Sixth World Cont only by its fear of intervention The question of honor for the new theory has a directly opposite conclusion, that is, a conclusion nections between its parts, with the simultaneous omic Policy and the prospers of world revolution? letariat of which country advanced much further gress of the Communist In accept this miserable caricature on Marx and become the curious idea that the can at which Marx, Engels, Lenin and all of us in Committee ter than that groups, IT STANDS TO REASON (court emas position was outlined in a manner which expressed of progressive phasis) that the struggle in one country cannot end the views of our Central Committee of the time; Leters clearly and quice core in several places adopted the draft program ocratic octrine has been declared a Social Dem. perish from a military intervention, but by no cluding Stalin and Bucharin up to 1925, have ar Vollmar, in 1878, ternational which finally. Lenin deviation.
means form In the quoted article, this inasmuch as in socialist society the readiness of own economic backwardness. But rived at.
without a decisive victory of one or the other side it at the con to the law of uneven development which, accord drafteda besta comandes Bucha characterization of our views, has, in From the uneven sporadic devolpment of capin SEVERAL civilized countries.
it did objections at ing to Stalin, Marx and Engels did not know. On important changes. The en the first time been advanced and At that time this was even self evident. gress and, think, it fully holds good today. the basis of that law Vollmar arrives in 1878 at tire validity of this timely History will mark that we have fallen into a much greater than the readiness of the slaves of radic nature of the socialist revolution; from the Substantiated masses to defend their country must be italism follow the unsimultaneous, uneven and spo Futter: far as Bucharin is concerned, he declined to deal the irrefutable conclusion that: capitalism to and fundamenta criticism te Social Democratic deviation for failing to recog: why should a military intervention menace us various countries ext that country, the question of the is extreme tensity inter dependence of the In the Marxian and quasi Marxian pre war lit with the political side of the problem since many Under the existing conditions, which will retain mains in spite of the fact nize other, follows not only erature, the question was many times raised as to comrades, including Lenin and Trotsky, had altheir forces also in the future, it can be foreseen that it was kept from the nize as inferior version of Vollmar theory of with destruction? Is it because the enemy is the political but also the economic impossibility of whether the victory of Socialism is possible in one ready spoken on the subject. in other words, that a simultaneous victory of socialism in all cultural Congress and never discussed socialism in one country.
country. Most of the writers replied to this question Bucharin agreed with my speech. Here is what The proletariat of Czar: wit countries, is absolutely out of the question. by the delegate. The sole ist Russia could not have taken power measure stronger? Buch the building up of socialism in one country.
of the productive From this angle we will examine once again attention accoropd it was its if Russia had not been a link, the weakest, but forces only in the military technical aspect. He the text of the program a little closer. We have from which one does not at all conclude said at the Fourth Congress about Otto Bauer: Developing this idea still further, Vollmar says: distribution to members of that it is impossible or inadmissible to start the rev. The Social Democratic theoreticians, who, on the Thus we have come to the ISOLATED socialist the Program Commission yet a link, of the chain of WORLD economy. does not want to understand that Ford tractor is already read in the introduction that: The olution and to capture power in one country.
one hand recognize in their holiday articles that cap a Imperialism intensifies the contradiction be.
italism, particularly in Europe, has outlived its use.
Exactly! In the same article we read: tween the growth of the productive forces of world et enig possible. the MOST PROBABLE WAY. ot ment to the Inioren kon in the least excluded the Soviet Republic from the difference that whereas the gun can act only from fulness and has become a brake on historical devel Inasmuci pas by the term of isolated State one vent of the gress which international division of labor set up by cap. time to time, the tractor brings its pressure to bear economy and national State barriers to an excep. The period of great development of the pro is italism.
tional degree.
ductive forces can begin only with the victory of the conviction that the evolution of Soviet Russia ineve must understand one State under a proletarian sue without disi ission.
We have already stated that this utterance was proletariat in several large countries. From here itably leads to the triumph of bourgeois democracy, dictatorship, Vollmar expressed an irrefutable idea. rigid co. erol on this dubike he wise owl which comes out only in the constantly. Besides, the tractor knows that a gun and it follows that an all round development of the meant to be the corner stone of the international which these stupid and conceited confusionists are which Lenin expressed in the quoted article of foren with ethelifew appeared at the moment when pur jadustry, which world proletariat together with which we De which excludes, rejects and sweeps away before world revolution and the formation of a strong econ We are the first Workers State a part of the program. But it is precisely this enunciation omic alliance of the industrial countries with Soviet worthy. THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY IS 1915.
Russia is necessary. Bucharin, Proletarian copies of the do ment which exhausts ever greater parts of the old fixed CALCULATED ON CERTAIN DEFINITE CON world Dictatorship in Russia and the World Revolution, MANOEUVER OF THE WORKERS STATÊ purely Vollmar idea whch, by the way, is by called by the Se setariat. Our pendence But then comes already something which is were distribuy were re two thirds of which is a crystallization of the de tral and bureaucratically can. The indifferent, neu hand the theory of socialism in one country as a of our industry on world economics, has tion is set in castrated word, connec reactionary because it is irreconciliably The Communist International, No. 1919)
is authentic not only to the main TENDENCY of de WHICH EXISTS IN CAPITALIST SURROUND far not as one sided and wrongly formulated as copy which we have just re. Manifested an acute demand for a renewing and cool set in motion only with the object of con poscent of the productive forces but also to the difficult and dangerous Bucharin statement that a rise in the productive THE REVOLUTIONARY DEVELOPMENT OF the role of Alaetican Im when Sabah with the world market and sealing the extrennections. If we would nature of these os forces, that is, real Socialist development, will be Come attained. The productive forces are incompatible gin only after the victory of the proleariat of the out of consideration in political calculationsif we Vollmar took as a starting point the supi advanced countries of Europe why, that is admit that capitalism will really be able to exist that socialist Germany will have live econo position perialism and the prospect of their full scope before our economic directors.
on the latter, without ceasing to with national boundaries. From here follow not mic rela: new revolutionaty situations, be a the phrase which was used as a basis of in Europe for another hundred or fifty years and is with world caitalist economy, having at the revisionist theory of So Congress at which Lenin had the opportunity to character than it is now. But unfortunately this ital, the conquest of land, the colonial policy, and all acts Ora mu and of indictment against Trotskyism, that Soviet Russia will have to adapt itself to it in same time the also the indictment read at the Seventh Plenum advantage of possessing a highly the Chinese resolution and speak to the Party. he issued the warning that the not so. The very monopoly of foreign trade the last imperialist war, but also the economic im.
automatically because, by recognizing this, we pres developed technique and a low cost of production its lessons, and with the for Party will have to face another examination: of the CCI. It is only strange that Bucharin, mation of worth rs and peas. wasan buamination which the recomand INTER: ber adependence ty The decisive importance of the productive forces of a self sufficing socialist society. The whose only salvation lies in his short memory, in Europe and the rise of a new epoch of capitalist PEACEFUL co habitation of the socialist and cap. in line with Le n, condemns of CAPITALIST countries have read the indictment. Side by side with this com revival. On what basis? li Otto Bauer has dis italist systems. But inasmuch as socialism niust, as in principle.
SUBORDINATED, WITH WHICH WE ARE monopoly in our socialist construction is a result already for a broken through the na ical circumstance, there is also a tragic one miraculous signs of capitalist revival then all that as it progresses, constantly reveal its colossal pro ment on the Third Party CONNECTED AND FROM WHICH WE CAN precisely of the existing correlation of forces which tional boundaries. Socialist society however, can NOLESCAPE, WILL MAKE US Go is unfavorable to us. But one must not forget for be built only on the most advanced productive among those indicted was also Lenin, who exa moment that the foreign trade only regulates our forces, on electricity and chemistry in pressed, tens of times, the very same clementary mined. But so far we do not see any miracles, and olution will fall away in itself, as socialism will be the fight agair le which was Nothing strikes the theory of an isolated com dependence upon the world market, but does not ses idea we do not believe in such. From our viewpoint, it able to settle accounts with capitalism by the sale interesting to berican. com plete socialism such a death blow as the simple eliminate it.
production including also the European bourgeoisie will hold power in the of goods more cheaply on the market.
agriculture in the Finally, in 1921, six years after Lenin alleged combination, Stire docu fact that the figures of our foreign trade have in course of several decades, it will under the present generalization and culmination of the munists. so long as our Soviet Republic, says, Lenin, highest elements of modern technique.
We have change of 1915, and four years after the October ted in full recent years become the corner stone of the fig.
the first draft program and ment will be will remain the only border land surrounded by the been repeating since Marx that capitalism is un but economic stagnation and the cultural decline of one of the authors of the second draft, Bucharin, corecomienky Revolution, the program of the Young Communist whole capitalist world, so long will it be an absolutely able to cope with the spirit of new technique ures of our economic plans. The most stringent League, approved by the Central Committee head.
without any changes place of our economy, including our industry, is draw Soviet Russian into the abys fan sen emalle proceed entirely from the idea of an isolated self. Its basic importance for the our import which depends entirely on the export, ed by Lenin and drawn up by a Commission under plete economic independence and of the disappear which it has given rise and which breaks asundér ance of any of our dangers. Vol. 17, page 409)not only the private property rights of Bucharin leadership, says in paragraph 4: to go through a state democracy, or adopt some sufficing economy. In Bucharin article entitled international revolutionary And inasmuch as the power of resistance is al. The chief dangers arise consequently from the. also bourgeois In the political power is already in the the hands of the working class. In the course of three national limits of the bourgeois State. So years of heroic struggle against world capitalist it of Spengler philosophy.
But we see no reason whatever, for the adoption. Possibility of Successful Socialist Construction in able correctne of its posi our economic plans is measured by the extent of borderland in capitalist economy which is hostile cialalism the most highly developed productive however, must not from only maintained and strengthened its Soviet Covern ward to a revolutionary development in Europe, the USSR (The Bolshevik, No. 192, 1926. of the Commi nist Interna our import.
to us. These dangers may, however, diminish or ment, Russia, although it possesses enormous nat. THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY IS MERELY which is the last word in scholastics multiplied by tional make is invaluable In the journal Planned Economy (a theoretical increase.
ural resources, is, nevertheless, from an, industrial point of view, a backward country, in which a petty DEVELOPMENT. Trotsky, Five Years of of isolated economy. The chief and only literature of cu period.
and lend them such in an article devoted to the system of planning, and the development of capitalist economy on the a state of development argument such bourgeois population predominates. It can arrive the Comintern, Social Democratic Criticisin. Editor.
is the following: a Socialism only through the world proletarian other. The second factor of course, that is, This formulation of the questions brings us the revolution, which epoch of development we have back to the point from which we started in deal Once we have all that is necessary and sufficient to take our export and import balance as a starting FIN Vin what partignificance boundaries of a national state which they have capitalism. The question arises, how can in drawing up our estimates for this year we had fate of world economy as a whole, is, IN THE socialism drive the productive forces back into the for the building up of socialisin, it follows that in the process of building of socialism there can be of DECISIVE This paragraph of the program of the Young ing with the draft program, namely, that in 20 such a point at which its further construction or plans for the various industries and consequently for case, broken through under capitalism? Or perhaps we Communist League not of an accidental article, the epoch of imperialism one cannot regard the would become impossible. If we have in our coun that the but of a program renders the attempts of the fate of one country in any other way but by taking of our socialist system will ought to abandon the idea of unbridled productry such a combination of forces that in relation to struction of new industrial enterprises, etc. etc. constantly lag behind that of the capitalist system tive forces for which the national boundaries AND cach past year, we are marching ahead with a greater (January 1927, page 27. which, IN THE END would inevitably lead to CONSEQUENTLY ALSO ways held the construction of a Socialist society ment, in which the individual relative strength of the socialist sector of economy and the socialized sectors of economy grow faster The methodological approach of the State Plan, the downfall of the Socialist Republic? if we will OF THE THEORY OF SOCIALISM IN ONE THE BOUNDARIES one country and precisely in Russia, nation ridiculous and inadequate. If always, why is it is subordinateurities is included and to which it whole. Theoreticians of the than the private capitalist sectors, then we are enter ning Commission says without any doubt, for all manage properly our economy in the phase when COUNTRY are too narrow, and limit ourselves ing every subsequent new year with a greater balance who have ears to hear, that the estimate figures it becomes necessary to create independently an to, let us Bucharin wrote such a a paragraph in the Second International exclude the from determine the tendency and tempo of our econ industrial basis with its incomparably us say, the home productive forces, that is, gram of the Young Communist League and why the world unit and omic development but that these estimate figures mands to the management, then our der to our technical backwardness? If this is the case, Was Stalin, looking on? How could Lerin and the they apply to the as an isolated country, we have all that is necessary and sufficient, SO.
then we should in many branches of industry stop whole Central Committee voice such a heresy? the vague criterion of econoinic maturity. they we have it. Starting out from a point which needs are already controlled by world economy; not be of labor will grow. Is it, however, ohle mal How was it that no one in the Party noticed this declare that the is not ready for inde to be proven, Bucharin builds up a complete sys becoming stronger we have outgrown the narrow countries, or, more correctly, in the predominant level which managed to link up bourgeois Russia even lower than our present pitiful technical trifle or raised a voice against it? Does this not pendent social construction, and draw the concluGeorge Vollmarwas look like a vicious joke which is a direct mockery sion of the inevitability of a capitalist degeneration and the leader of the German Social Democracy in the days of The capitalist world shows us by. its export and country? Without a clear answer to this question to bring it into the vortex of the imperialist war le opposed the Marian contentions a the questions of of the Party, its history and the Comintern? Is it of the Workers State.
import figures that it has other means of persuar the meaningless and wordy statements that our for an EXPANSION OF ITS TERRITORY FOR not high time to put a stop to this? Is it not high The authors of the draft program adopt the problem and the like. Ile was one of the fathers of the evolution sion than those of military intervention. Inasmuch tempo is in itself sufficient (let us forget the THE PRODUCTIVE FORCES which had outtime to tell the revisionists: Dare not hide behind same theoretical ground and accept the metaphys the Bignarck anti Socialist law, he served a terra in the Zwickau as productivity of labor and the productivity of factitious philosophy about the speed of the tor: grown the State boundaries.
Lenin and the theoretical traditions of Marxism? ical methodology of the Social Democratic theoretiscos, where he wrote a work on the question of an isolated Social.
a social system as a whole is measured on the toise. are insolvent. But the very mentioning of theory exactly heade the besh Congres that is, at the last one ende of. including is based on on the of Thi authors his and the take over from This depends on the action of names forces but must inmediatez aur metha men wareho that development country with possible in that of power.
we Bebel and the older Lied concentration of capital, on the agrarian TO BE CONTINUED